January 19, 2008 - Day by day our civil liberties are eroded in a purposeful campaign to turn this country into a police state. They start with pretending that seat belt laws are designed for safety, when it really just gives the police another reason to pull you over. Same goes for cell phone laws. Then they place cameras at red lights to generate revenue without applying any resources. We all sit silent. I have heard the flawed logic that says, “Well, I don’t break the law, so why would it bother me?” The issue is not whether you feel you break the law, it is the power you concede to others to interpret if THEY feel you are breaking the law. Perhaps the most egregious violations of our civil liberties happen every day when the very people we pay to protect us, instead are killing us. The new weapon of choice is the Taser. Designed to pump electricity into a human being, the Taser has been used inappropriately, and has resulted in the deaths of innocents across this country for far too long now. It is time to remove this weapon from the arsenal of police officers who do not deserve to wear the badges they have.

March 20, 2008 - Federal authorities are looking into possible civil rights violations following the release of videos showing misconduct by South Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers.

The controversy began a month ago, when the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus came forward with a video from 2004 in which a trooper told a suspect, ""You better run, n**, because I'm fixin' to kill you."

Now a freedom of information request has produced video from dashboard cameras showing two incidents in which troopers used their patrol cars to deliberately ram into suspects fleeing on foot. Both those suspects were also black.

In one video, a patrol car chases a man through the parking lot of an apartment complex, then follows him between buildings and across footpaths and lawns where children are playing before running into him.

In the other, a patrol car hits a suspect as he tries to cross in front of it on a back road. The man flips over the side of the car and then off the road. "Hey, I nailed the f**k out of him," the trooper proclaims. "He went flying up in the air. ... I was trying to hit him."

Both officers remained on duty. The one who boasted of deliberately hitting the suspect was given a three-day suspension. The other officer, who admitted to poor judgment but said he hit the man accidentally, received only a reprimand.

Ed. Note:  This kind of person is a police officer?!  Don't you ever forget that there are many more cops like him!

The following is a first-hand account of an incident that occurred recently in southern California.  I have cleaned up some of the language and grammar but have otherwise left the story intact.

CALIFORNIA - March 20, 2008 - I got home last night and was grabbing some beers out of the garage to put in the fridge.  My neighbor was just pulling in, and then about 5 or 6 cop cars pulled in behind and in front. My neighbor. Tim, is about 6’6” and 300 lbs....he is a commercial contractor (owner), works hand-on with cement, big pipes, road graders, steel rigging...that sort of stuff.  Big guy, and a bit short fused...but, really nice and friendly.

The cops all jumped out, told him “HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!”  Tim shouts back “SCREW YOU” YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!”

I thought this was it...so I ran in and grabbed my video camera; I went back out, started the camera… no disk, just great.  Tim still refused to be handcuffed unless THEY TOLD HIM he was under arrest.  They said “No, you are NOT under arrest, we need to protect us (the cops), so WE CAN PROTECT YOU!!  My brain exploded when I heard that statement. Tim yelled back,” I don’t need any protection...Now, if you want to talk like normal men, we’ll talk but, I’m NOT going to talk if arrested or handcuffed so make up your mind !”

This little pimple-faced cop - must have been 22 years old - yelled, “ On the ground, dude, or I will tase you!!”  Tim yelled “ Screw you and your Taser, you little piece of crap!  Is there a man in uniform willing to talk with me?”  Just then the little twerp shot him with the Taser.  Tim jumped pretty hard, but just grabbed the Taser wires and pulled them out, then yanked the wires out of the Taser gun. The Taser gun flew across the yard. The young twerp cop pulled his 9mm.  Then two more cops pulled guns or Tasers, I couldn’t tell.  Then what looked to be the supervisor told the little twerp, “Knock it off and get back in your patrol car!!”  He told everyone to “holster”.

The supervisor asked Tim if he was OK and if he planned on getting violent.  Tim said he’s OK, and he won’t get violent, but if that little twerp cop ever gets near him again, he would mess him up.  He also said that they could arrest him if they want, but he would not talk with handcuffs on.  Something along those lines.

The older cop was very calm & defused everyone within 10 seconds.  So the cop asked him what’s going on.  From what I could hear, which was hard at times, this is how Tim explained it to the older cop.

Tim went to school to pick up his daughter, in the 10th grade (4.0 student).  She got in his truck and was crying about getting an ‘F’ on a single assignment she refused to do that day in ‘Political Science’ class.  That would drop her GPA below her 4.0. down to 3.6.

She told Tim about “the assignment” and he said “I’ll kill that bastard!!”  Two teachers heard that because his truck door was open, and called the cops.  Tim went inside to confront the teacher, but the teacher had already left.  So, Tim went to the principal’s office and said he wanted to talk with the principal.  Just then, a school cop stepped in and asked for identification.  Tim said “screw you” and brushed him aside and got in his truck and drove home. That’s when everything hit the fan.

Tim went on to explain to the supervisor cop - and this I heard word for word - “How would YOU like it if your son or daughter, who works very hard for grades, gets FAILED for refusing to participate in having the WHITE STUDENTS write APOLOGY LETTERS to the BLACK STUDENTS, about making their ancestors SLAVES or as an alternative write APOLOGY LETTERS for stealing Mexican Land from Hispanics?”

The cop asked if he was serious.  Tim said, “Hell yes, I’m serious....ask my daughter.” Ashley, Tim’s daughter, was crying uncontrollably on their sidewalk, thinking her dad was going to get shot or arrested.  She was so upset that she pissed herself.  She was crying and scared and shaking.  Tim told her to go inside and get changed and come out when she could.

The cop then asked if he was going to hurt or planned on killing a teacher. Tim said no, it was a figure of speech.  He admitted he was mad enough to kill him, but assured the officer that he wouldn’t.  The cop then issued Tim a “voluntary restraining request”.  I know a judge must issue an actual Restraining Order because I’ve had a couple!!  So Tim would not to go back to the school, unless a Peace or Social Officer was present.  I couldn’t believe the words that were being used and why.

Tim agreed, except he insisted that the older supervisor cop answer his question.  The cop said, and I quote, “I got my son out of Murrieta Valley his first year, after they had a Health Class that included safe homosexual practices.”  Tim asked the cop if he was serious, the cop said, ”As a heart attack”.

The cop gave Tim his card...and said to give him a call if he needs any help, and when or if he wants to go to the school, he would go with him.

Tim said the little twerp cop who tased him was way out of line.  The supervisor said he must inquire because he used a weapon, and he might even ask Tim to make a statement.  You can tell, that older cop didn’t like the punk cop.  I looked around and there was only one other cop car left so the other 4 or 5 took off without me even knowing it. I was focused on Tim and the old cop.

So, Tim slowly dragged the wires and pulled the Taser gun toward him...the cop picked it up and apologized (I almost fainted, this cop acted human), then wrote out the request, Tim signed it, and that was about it.  I’m not going to ask Tim what went down, I’m sure he’ll tell me later; but what the hell?  I would have done the same thing !!  We aren’t allowed to get angry at a teacher anymore?!?  Anyway, I think it’s an important incident to remember.  I’m going to eventually ask Tim if I can get the incident in the newspapers’ editorial.  Maybe I’m over-reacting, but it screwed me up a bit.  I want out of this communist state.  Here are the points about which I would write.

First, what lesson was this public educator “teaching”?  How to be a racist?  I can’t even get the meaning of the assignment but no matter what, this “teacher” should be fired immediately.

Second, you know my love for cops given the crap surrounding this whole thing.  Except that ONE old cop actually acted like a human.  That should be a lesson to ALL cops.

Third, the actions of the punk little twerp cop that tased a citizen for NO REASON Tim was 15-20 feet away and NOT approaching anyone when this little twerp fired on him.  That cop should be fired immediately and let Tim tase him for awhile.  Even just 10 years ago, not a single weapon would have been involved.  Now Tasers, pepper spray, and choke holds are an everyday occurrence.

Lastly, the whole public education system.  How this can even be a part of learning is beyond any understanding.  I have had my fair share of teacher disputes but, why is it that only ONE parent out of 30-40 students found a problem with this assignment?  That’s the part I will never understand.

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania - March 19, 2008 - The Alliance Defense Fund has appealed a judge's decision to allow a Pittsburgh ordinance to stand, which prohibits free speech around abortion clinics.

The case involves a nurse - Mary Brown - who was prohibited from counseling women in a public area near an abortion mill. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says they were unsuccessful in getting the presiding judge to allow free-speech rights near abortion clinics to continue while a lawsuit challenging the ordinance moves forward.

However, attorney David Cortman reveals that an appeal has been filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He says it is their "[o]pinion that this ordinance is unconstitutional because in essence it creates a no-speech zone on a public sidewalk, which we believe is an oxymoron."

Cortman explains that the lawsuit challenges the ordinance, which requires pro-life citizens to run an "obstacle" course in order to speak freely on a "public sidewalk." He argues that the ordinance penalizes Christians for expressing their beliefs.

The ordinance was approved by city officials in 2005.

GEORGIA - March 19, 2008 - Eighty-one-year-old Robert Jenkins said he loaded his wife's handgun and tried to scare off a burglar in his Tucker home, but he fired when the intruder rushed him, according to a family friend.

DeKalb police said the shooting was justified, and Jenkins will not be charged in the death of the suspect, a man possibly in his 20s who had not been identified Wednesday.

"He defended his home, defended his wife," police spokesman J.T. Ware said. "He did what everybody would hope to do in a situation like that."

Jenkins was being treated at a hospital Wednesday for a minor gunshot wound. His 78-year-old wife was unharmed.

Ed. Note: Another case among many where an armed citizen successfully defended his family and property from a criminal.

LONDON, England - March 19, 2008 - This column is utterly pointless. I'll say it now to save you the trouble later. It won't make a blind bit of difference to what Britain is becoming - a society in which ordinary citizens have no rights of privacy. Fifty years from now you won't be able to buy so much as a packet of condoms without producing a biometric ID card, linked to a government computer that logs (“for your own good”) how much nookie you're getting - and probably where, when, how and with whom.

But I'm going to write it anyway, because as far as I'm aware it's not yet forbidden to object to the imposition of sinister surveillance - though that will probably be only a matter of time. Besides, it's not good for my health to walk round with my blood boiling and steam coming out of my ears.

So here goes. Is it not astonishing, horrifying and, worst of all, deeply un-British that, when Heathrow Terminal 5 opens for business next week, every one of its passengers will be compulsorily fingerprinted? Yes, even if you are merely flying from London to Manchester, you will be required to place four little pinkies on an electronic pad, just as if you had been charged with robbery with violence. You will also be photographed. And that's just at check-in. When you reach the departure gate, the whole process will happen again.

Let's not even consider how much this will increase lines. Just ask yourself by what right British Airways (which has exclusive use of Terminal 5) and BAA, which runs Heathrow, can demand your fingerprints - even if they are transporting you to another British city.

And let's get one thing clear. This is very much their doing. It's nothing to do with the police, the security services or the Home Office. For once, it seems, this isn't more government meddling in our lives. We are assured of that. Indeed, BAA has issued a statement promising that all fingerprints and photographs of passengers will be “destroyed after 24 hours” and not passed to the police or anyone else. Whether you choose to believe that is up to you. My view is that the security services will find the prospect of obtaining four million sets of fingerprints each year far too mouthwatering to pass up. After all, they even want to trawl the Oyster card database now for details of Londoners' travel movements.

So what excuse do these private organizations have for demanding such intrusive personal details from us? As far as I can see, the excuse is their own embarrassing design incompetence. Most airport terminals keep domestic and international passengers separated. Terminal 5 apparently won't. So, BAA tells us, it will be theoretically possible for a foreign villain or illegal immigrant to fly in, claim to be in transit to another country and thus avoid going through passport control, swap boarding passes with an accomplice booked on a domestic flight, and alight at another UK airport without going through a border check.

Call me skeptical, but that tangled scenario strikes me as a nonsense. If the issue is simply that of incoming passengers slipping into the country unnoticed, let all foreign visitors be checked - even fingerprinted - when they step off the plane, whether they are in transit or not. After all, that's what the Americans do to us. It's not a very polite way to welcome visitors, but it's a lot more acceptable than giving private companies the right to fingerprint British citizens, especially when they are only traveling round their own country.

But in that last sentence lies the nub of the matter. We didn't grant BAA any such “right”. Nobody debated this issue. Nobody voted on it. Nobody passed a law. Probably, like me, you weren't even aware that it would happen until last week. Maybe you weren't even aware until now. Yet because of BAA's stranglehold on the major British airports, it will now be very difficult to avoid having your fingerprints taken every time you travel by air.

And this will, of course, be the thin end of the wedge. What happens next week at Terminal 5 will soon be repeated at Terminal 1, where domestic and international passengers also mingle. And what happens at Heathrow will soon happen at other British airports. There are already plans to do the same at Gatwick and Manchester.

The hassle and cost will be unimaginable. The potential for misuse of the data is horrible to contemplate. And there's no guarantee that the technology is up to the job anyway. Matching fingerprints in “real time” (i.e. the time it takes passengers to walk from check-in to departure gate) is, experts say, notoriously difficult.

No, this is just a pretext to strip yet more privacy away from ordinary people. Where will it end? Will DNA samples soon be demanded from all who use airports? Will your fingerprints be required if you pay by credit card in shops or restaurants? The logic is no less far-fetched than what BAA is about to impose at Terminal 5.

Perhaps, though, you feel that we should be very proud. After all, it's another first for Britain! In no other country are domestic passengers fingerprinted before they can travel. The next time our politicians start to lecture the Chinese on human rights (not that they have the guts to do that very often), this will be another brick that can be hurled back at our glasshouse. “Never mind about us,” they will say. “When are you going to let your own citizens travel freely within Britain without fingerprinting and photographing them?”

And there will be no answer to that. Of course, it will be declared - as always - that “the innocent have nothing to fear”. That's true, in theory. But are you happy to trust the people who run the airline industry with your fingerprints? As thousands of angry passengers will attest, you can't even trust them with your suitcase.

STUART, Florida - March 19, 2008 - A Florida County is using a declared war on killer bees to justify violating the property rights of local citizens.

Commissioners in Martin County have unanimously passed an ordinance allowing county employees to go onto private property without permission to kill Africanized bees and treat areas where mosquitoes are breeding.

The county's mosquito control administrator Gene Lemire said the county already responds to bee and mosquito complaints with the permission of property owners.

But he said they have had an increasing number of incidents in which property owners either cannot be found or are unwilling to clean up the infestation themselves.

Killer bees, which Lemire said have been moving into Martin County, are more aggressive than regular European honey bees and will chase people farther to sting them when a hive is disturbed.

Ed. Note: Your right to private property is not subject to local ordinances.  You do not have to allow a county inspector on your property, regardless of his reasons or what this ordinance says.  Resist!  Do not comply!  If someone comes on my private property despite the numerous No Trespassing signs I have around its perimeter, then the intruders may be shot!  That is the American way!